Sacrifice And Saviors
by yellowvalley
Summary: A malfuntion in one of Atlantis' systems puts the expedition cut off from one another throughout the city, and in danger. Can they fix it in time to save themselves? Warning: Possible Major Character Death
1. malfunction

-1The malfunctions started slowly and in sections of the city not yet used. Rodney and his team took note and assigned a spot in the long list of things that needed to be done. Had it not gotten worse, it would have been several weeks before they got to it.

It did get worse. The malfunctions started happening more often and Dr. Gibson's quarters fell victim; the first time a room currently in use was affected. Dr. Gibson of course reported to Dr. Zelenka when she couldn't get into her room and Zelenka first sent a team out, then set to work himself at one of the city's mainframe computers.

Over the span of several hours searching for the problem, he had nominal luck. Beyond the fact that the doors would not open, it appeared that complete power loss in all circuits leading to the rooms affected were the only other symptoms of the problem and did not make much sense.

When he couldn't get any further, he brought in Dr. McKay, who muttered and reviewed the data Zelenka had retrieved for him. After verifying a few hunches of what the problem could not be, he decided to notify Dr. Weir, who called an emergency meeting of senior staff.

"I was able to pry the doors open during the nano-virus outbreak. Why is this so different?" Sheppard drawled while he slowly rotated the chair from side to side, like he couldn't sit completely still. He was in full slouch mode, so low in his chair he looked a head shorter than everyone around him.

"No, no, you don't understand," McKay said irritably. "The doors seal shut, but it's not like when the nano-virus was set loose. The city was made to fly in _outer space_, and they had safety protocols in place in case of a hull breach. We can't simply pry them open, they are air tight and locked down. Once they lock, for whatever reason completely unbeknownst to people with _common sense,_ the City shuts down power to all circuits controlling that room, including the doors. We can't pry it open, and we can't hack it open."

"And you say this malfunction is getting worse?" Major Lorne put in from beside his CO. He had his data pad in front of him, ready to take notes, but obviously not quite ready to believe that this problem was going to be his to bear.

Zelenka answered before McKay could. "Yes. It has been happening over the past twenty-four hours, but in isolated rooms we do not use. It started out with one, but more and more are being affected at a quicker rate of speed as time goes by. We thought maybe it not affect rooms we use, but..." he trailed off, shrugging his shoulders while simultaneously pushing up his glasses with his finger.

At the back of the room, Dr. Weir sat up straighter in her chair, focus intent on her Chief Science Officer and his second. "Do you know how to fix this?" she asked.

McKay blinked at her. "Yes, of course. Just some duct tape and bubble gum, and we'll have everything right as rain. I just thought I'd come and debrief you before I fixed it, you know, just for kicks."

Weir frowned at him.

McKay shook his head. "At this point we don't even know what's causing it, so no, we can't fix it. We thought it might be something with the isolation program since it did act somewhat like the nano-virus incident, but everything is running smoothly . We even shut down the program for an hour to see if that helped but another unused lab fell during the test so that's not it. I have people looking into life support and security systems, but that's going to take time."

Zelenka nodded. "The operating systems of the city are not just complicated, but layered. Takes time to find and fix errors, even when we know exactly where to look."

"Which we don't. Hence it taking even more time than usual to get this fixed," McKay broke in.

Colonel Sheppard spoke up from his spot across from Rodney. "Ok. So this computer bug is locking down rooms for no reason. Is there any pattern to which rooms? What type?"

McKay shook his head but it was Zelenka that replied. "No, is completely random. Some are quarters, some are labs, there are even a few sections of hallway. Lucky we only inhabit such a small part of city, otherwise people might be stuck."

That caught both Sheppard's and Weirs' attention. "So people could definitely become trapped?" Weir stated, alarmed. Sheppard sat up straight from his slouch.

McKay rolled his eyes. "Yes." Zelenka looked at him, opening his mouth, but McKay cut him off. "Well, actually, I'm not sure. There is nothing indicating that the city did a search for life signs in any of the rooms before shut down, so I'm not completely sure, but yeah, I think so."

Looking down at her own data pad thoughtfully, Weir tapped her nails against the table. "Can you give me an estimate on how long it will take to discover and fix the root of the problem?"

McKay snorted, "Sure, sometime between an hour from now and a year or two." He deflated a bit "It just depends on our luck of hitting on the problem early on in our search. And if we are depending on luck, well... let's just say we may want to think of evacuating all non-critical personnel to the mainland for a nice little vacation."

Sheppard knocked his knuckles on the table, leaning back into his 'thinking slouch' and began to rotate his chair a little quicker. "Mass evacuation is a last resort. Is there someplace inside the city that we can move people, somewhere big enough that this won't effect?" Weir looked on hopefully, waiting for an answer.

Shaking his head, Zelenka replied, "Nothing long term. The balconies and piers obviously, but seeing how we don't know when we will get problem fixed, it's not really an option."

Weir laid her hand on the table, and pinned her gaze on her two chief scientists. "Exactly how imminent is it that someone will be trapped in one of these rooms, and is it your official stance on this matter that an evacuation of all non-crucial personnel be commenced at this time?"

Zelenka and McKay looked at each other, obviously having a silent conversation. They turned to face Dr. Weir simultaneously. McKay began haltingly, "Since the pattern is random, I can't give you an exact time, but I would say calculating the odds it'd be about 12 hours or so before we'd need to mount a rescue operation. As for the evacuation," he trailed off, glancing at Zelenka, "Yes, we do believe that would be the best right now."

Elizabeth drew a deep breath, and looked around the room. She had everyone's attention. The concern was obvious but no one was visibly tense, having been through similar things in the three plus years they'd been in the city. They all had confidence in their fellow expedition members to bail them out, even if it meant leaving the city for a few days.

"Alright then. Colonel, you and Major Lorne get started on evacuation protocols. Rodney, give him a list of people you think need to stay behind from your area. I only want people who are working on this problem directly to stay in the city, and I want them under supervision of the military. I know they can't do much in the way of protecting from this bug," she continued, overriding McKay's upcoming complaint, "but it'll give me piece of mind to have someone there with them."

Sheppard shook his head. "If we are in any kind of a rush here, evacuating to the main land is not going to cut it. The puddle jumpers are equipped to fit 20 people at the most so even if we use all of them, it would take several trips."

Weir frowned. "Yes, of course. The gate?"

Sheppard nodded. "I still say we take 3 jumpers to the mainland, including some of the medical staff and several marines. That way if anything goes wrong, those left in the city will have support if needed. But everyone else, I think, should go to the Beta site, and to be safe, the remaining jumpers with them."

Dr. Beckett nodded from next to Lorne. "Aye, I'm sure Dr. Biro and a few of the others will be happy to go to the mainland. I'll stay here in the city, for immediate support" He saw Dr. Weir frown and hastily added "My ATA gene might come in handy as well." He grimaced slightly, obviously hoping that a situation involving him using the technology would not come up."

McKay nodded. "Yes, he could come in handy, if the Colonel were not available."

Weir agreed. "Okay. So we are evacuating all personnel to the Beta site, with the exceptions of those few staying in the city or moving to the mainland. I'll make an announcement city-wide in five minutes. Colonel, McKay, contact those you wish to stay in the city and update them. I want marines assigned to the scientists staying, and I want everyone accounted for at all times while they are here. Anyone else have anything to add?"

Everyone shook their heads. Elizabeth stood. "Okay then. Let's get this done calmly and quickly."

One at a time everyone rose and headed towards the opening doors to get their assigned tasks completed.


	2. Reaction

AN: I'd like to thank my fabulous grammar beta Sorrel Rowan. Without her, this would be "kingdom of the commas" and a scramble of run-on sentences. :)

----------------------------------------

The last out of the conference room, Elizabeth watched as her staff scattered to different parts of the city to fulfill their duties. She was concerned, but not truly worried about this malfunction; not at this point at any rate. Over the years of being in Atlantis, she'd come to expect bumps in the road. She had full confidence in her scientists. After all, it was apparently just a computer glitch. Something Rodney and Radek ate for breakfast, as you might say.

Or, she thought ruefully, what Rodney will say once he has it fixed.

Stepping out of the meeting room herself, she glanced over her people in the gate room. Chuck, the engineer come communications director, met her eyes and smiled warily. He knew something was going on but was not privy to all the information. She approached him, returning his smile.

"Dr. Weir," he greeted.

"Hello Chuck." She noticed several scientists bent over consoles and notably, one underneath, with a fond shake of her head. "We are about to evacuate all non-essential personnel to the Beta-site. How many people do you need to keep here to keep the city functional?"

He peered around at the small huddles of people, some in uniform, some not, and shrugged. "Just me, really. Everything is pretty much automatic. Although if you're going to need functions of the city shut down or booted up, I'm going to need a few."

"We shouldn't need anything complex. Drs. Zelenka and McKay and several of their staff will be staying behind as well. They should be able to help you with anything you need." She leaned against his console. "Can you patch me through to city-wide, please?"

Nodding, he turned to his laptop. With a few quick taps of the keys, he had a channel ready and gave her a thumbs up.

Elizabeth gathered her thoughts, took a deep breath, and activated her radio.

"Attention all personnel. This is Dr. Weir. Atlantis is experiencing a few technical difficulties and while I have the utmost confidence that our staff will find and fix the problem expediently, we've decided to go ahead and evacuate the city. We will be traveling by gate to the Beta site and all personnel unless otherwise directed by myself, Dr. McKay, or Colonel Sheppard, are to report to the gate room immediately. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Weir out."

She nodded to Chuck, who frowned at her, but cut the connection.

"Ma'am?" He asked worriedly.

"Some kind of programming error, sealing off random rooms throughout the city so we can't get inside. McKay is on it." She said, knowing that as communications officer, he was about to get a whole lot of upset and cranky scientists yelling in his ear and would need more information.

Chuck nodded and turned back to his laptop, obviously as strong in his belief as she was that it would be corrected in short order if Dr. McKay was working on it. The calls started coming in, so she left him to his duties.

As Elizabeth walked away, she heard him take the first call.

"Yes, Dr. Kavanagh, unless you hear straight from Dr. McKay, that means you... I'm sure he would have gotten in touch with you by now if he wanted... Dr. Kavanagh, Lt Snyder is in your area of the city, do I need to give him a call? Yeah, thought so. We'll see you in five minutes."

Elizabeth laughed under her breath as she entered her office.

-----------------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later, the gate was open. The majority of the city slowly, and grumpily in the case of the scientists, made their way through to the Beta-site. Only a few dedicated and stubborn scientists had caused a fuss about leaving in the middle of something but Chuck had been monitoring the city wide life signs detector. He forwarded the location to the marines, who smoked them out and put them on their way. Elizabeth knew this was a major inconvenience for her people, but it was truly amazing how efficient everything was. Mostly, she knew, thanks to Col. Sheppard's drilling of the marines and gate room staff on how to empty out the city. The man could seem obsessed about the 'Leave no man behind' philosophy, but it paid off.

"Dr. Weir?"

She turned to face Chuck, who motioned her over to the big display with the life signs monitor on it. It was zoomed in to the East Pier, near the Marine Biologists' labs were. Three unmoving life signs were glowing brightly on the screen.

"We have two marines, along with Dr. Blise, stuck here," he pointed to the life signs. Then he pointed to a section of hallway right in front of the dots, in between them and the main part of the city. "This section closed down while they were pulling Dr. Blise away from her specimens. They can't get through, and there is no way to backtrack from there to another hallway. They're stuck. I've contacted Dr. Zelenka and he's sending Kusanagi out, but he doesn't think they'll have any more luck opening those doors than they did the others."

She nodded, the first trickle of true fear for her people dropping into her stomach and making her queasy. Activating her radio, she called for Col. Sheppard. "Colonel, we have two of your men and Dr. Blise stuck in the East Pier with the only way back to the control room cut off. Radek says he's working on it, but no luck yet."

"Shit. Who is it?"

Chuck responded, "Capt. Arnlon and Corp. Julien, Colonel. I have them on radio, they called in when they found themselves trapped."

"Thanks Chuck. Patch them in to the command frequency, let me see if we can find another way out."

"Yes sir," he responded, and jogged back to his laptop. A few seconds later he replied, saying "You are good to go, Colonel."

"Captain?" Sheppard questioned over the radio. "Explain your status please."

"Sir, we are stuck just a few doors down from Dr. Blise's office. The section of hallway in front of us is blocked off and not responding. We cannot force it open. We tried to backtrack, but the hallway ends at Dr. Blise's office. There is no way to get back to the gate room, sir."

"Alright. Dr. Blise's office, does it have a window or a balcony off of it?" Sheppard asked thoughtfully.

From her spot in front of the big display, she studied the outline of the East Pier but could not see any indications of one. She looked at Chuck questioningly, who told her there was no way to tell from the control room.

"Negative, sir. Closed in on all four walls, no way out," the Captain responded with a calm voice.

Chuck, who had been studying the graphic of the city, put his hand up to his ear in a standard move of someone being paged. Elizabeth returned her attention to the map.

"Okay, Captain, how about any of the other doors along your route? Check all the areas in your space and get back to me. Worse comes to worse, I can have one of the jumpers we are sending to the mainland do a scoop."

"Yes, sir," Captain Arnlon replied, and there was an audible click as he turned his mike off.

"Colonel," Elizabeth said, "How are the rest of the evacuation teams coming along?"

She heard him mumble something to someone near him, and someone reply. "We only have 8 more teams of two out and about in the city that were doing standard evac I also sent a few teams to retrieve supplies from the armory and such, just in case. We may have to blow a few doors open before this is over," He stated wearily

"Colonel, we have another problem," Chuck stated into the radio. "Lieutenant Corosen was in the munitions room when it locked down on him. He's trapped, too. I've already sent Dr. McKay down there, he's on his way."

"Son of a bitch!" Sheppard said feelingly. "Was anyone else with him?"

"No, Smigs was with him but hadn't entered the room yet."

"Well," Elizabeth began hopefully. "If he's already in the armory, he can blow himself out, right?" She had begun to realize how serious of a problem this could have been if they had waited to evacuate. But soon, the expedition would be through the gate to safety. Hopefully, those trapped would receive help and be able to join them in short order. She felt a hand settle lightly on her shoulder and turned to meet the concerned blue eyes of Dr. Beckett.

"Actually ma'am," Chuck stated regretfully, "He's stating that he is stuck in the munitions room, not in the sensitive materials room. Sergeant Smigs thought of the same thing, and went around to the other access door, but that was closed as well. It appears we have lost access to the explosives."

Elizabeth cringed at the string of curses that came from Sheppard over the radio. "I'm on my way over there," He stated shortly, then abruptly cut his mike off.

From behind Chuck, Zelenka had appeared. Elizabeth watched as he quickly approached the pair of scientists he had put to work on one of the consoles. He shooed them away with a mixture of Czech and English no one needed a translation for, connected his laptop to the console and started typing away, muttering under his breath. Both Elizabeth and Carson moved toward him but did not dare disturb him.

"McKay to Zelenka. You up there yet?"

"Yes, yes, I am here." Zelenka replied distractedly, still totally enveloped in his work.

"Rodney, what's the situation down there?" Elizabeth asked worriedly. She could hear Col Sheppard arriving at the scene in the background and firing short, clipped questions at Sgt. Smigs.

"Elizabeth, we're in worse trouble than we thought. The city is apparently not only locking the doors and shutting down power, but she's shutting down life support to the whole city. Climate controls are gone, carbon dioxide scrubbers are powered down and the water supply is completely sealed off," McKay explained quickly. "That's not all, either. Inside those rooms, the ones that have shut down? The city is reversing the air supply. She's not pumping oxygen in, she's taking it out, replacing it with carbon dioxide. And I have no clue why."

"_zpropadeně", _Zelenka hissed. He stared at his laptop in horror, then met Elizabeth's eyes. Typing in a few keystrokes, he turned in his seat to look at the large display screen with the map of the city, and as her eyes followed, Elizabeth realized he had changed the map. It now showed most of the city in blue, with small red sections standing out. She turned to where Carson had been, just in time to see him walking briskly through the door Radek had come through earlier, only the other way. She knew intuitively he was going to the munitions room, to be ready when they pulled Corosen out.

Zelenka nearly tripped over himself getting up and over to the display screen as Elizabeth followed

"The areas in red are the affected rooms," Zelenka explained urgently. She looked at the map again and felt faint. Fifteen percent of the city was in red and as she watched, two more areas changed from blue to red.

Zelenka turned again and went back to his laptop. "Rodney, quarantine system is on standby and seems to be running fine. Life support is shut down, but from the way it looks it is symptom of problem, not cause. Where else could it be?"

"Check environmentals Or maybe security," Rodney replied distractedly. "If it's a program we haven't gotten to yet, we are screwed," He muttered, probably not even realizing his mike was still on. Elizabeth heard a slap, then an annoyed, "Okay, ow?" from McKay.

"We aren't there yet, McKay," Sheppard said, obviously annoyed. "Lorne, change directions. I need you down here in the munitions room with that C-4. Captain Arnlon, you're going to have to hold it for a bit. But we will get to you."

"Actually, sir, we have just found a room with a balcony. We can sit tight here if you need us to, until a jumper comes along."

Sheppard's sigh of relief could be heard over the radio. "Great, captain. Sit tight, it might be a few hours."

"Yes, sir."

"Lorne, hot foot it down here," Sheppard ordered.

"On my way, sir. We are about four minutes from your location."

"I thought we were cut off from the C-4?" Elizabeth asked.

"Jumpers one and two keep small amounts of the stuff for emergency use. I had Lorne get it."

"Good thing he's so close. He's running out of air in there!" Rodney said, relieved.

Elizabeth blinked in surprise. She didn't realize they were running out of time that quickly. "Wait, Rodney, how long does the Lt. have?"

"A matter of minutes. He's barely responding to our calls now, almost unconscious. Lorne'll be cutting it close as it is."

Her eyes drifted toward the doorway Carson had left through a short while ago. She wanted to be down there, with them. The gate room floor was clear of people now, nearly everyone was gone. She wasn't really needed here anymore. However, Sgt. Bates, drifted slowly up the stairs between her and the door, and she had a funny feeling Col. Sheppard knew before she did exactly how she would feel. Bates met her eyes and nodded his head, and she knew for sure that if she was going anywhere it would be through the gate to safety whether she liked it or not.

"Damn it!" The exclamation had come from Lorne, loud in her ear. Her head swiveled automatically to the map of the city, where she saw that several more sections were now in red. Over a quarter of the city, and more as she watched.

"Report, Major!" Sheppard growled.

"Sir, I'm cut off from you. A section of the hallway has shut down on either side of us. I can blow the door, but that will take time and I only have the two sticks of C-4. If I use them on these doors, we'll be out!"

Elizabeth looked closely at the area where three dots representing Lorne and his two marines were trapped. They were indeed stuck between two hallway sections that had shut down. Luckily, the section they were in was still operable, which meant the city was not removing the oxygen. But if life support was down over the city like McKay had said, eventually they'd use up what they had and no fresh air was being pumped in.

Silence on the radio lasted about thirty seconds, before Sheppard's tightly strained voice could be heard. "Balcony option open to you, Major?"

"Hold on, sir, we only have two doors in this section and Williams is checking... That's a negative sir," Lorne said flatly.

"Colonel," Chuck interrupted nervously. "We have two more people, Drs. McGullam and Murphy, trapped ten minutes further into the middle of the city from your location. They were in their lab when it shut down. Trying to preserve their work before they left," he finished bitterly.

Elizabeth let her eyes drift up the chemist's labs where she saw two life signs all alone, and smack in the middle of a section of city that was nearly completely red.

"Right, of course. Where are they?" Sheppard said angrily.

"Somewhere you'll never be able to reach, John," Elizabeth said sorrowfully.

"You don't know that!" He shot back heatedly.

"Zelenka was able to produce a map showing the affected and non-affected areas of the city. They are surrounded by red. You can't get through." Elizabeth knew it would kill him to leave anyone still alive but there was nothing he could do. She hoped he realized that before going off and getting himself trapped.

"Okay, McKay, if you can't get them out, can't you at least restore life support?" Sheppard sounded desperate, and everyone else was silent.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Zelenka shaking his head. She walked over to him, meeting his eyes as he spoke.

"I'm trying, Colonel, but life support system city wide is not responding," He spoke quietly.

"I haven't been sitting here on my ass reading my email, you know!" McKay sounded angry, hurt, and worried out of his mind. "I had been trying to at least stop the reversal of oxygen movement, hoping to give us more time to get the main system up and running, but it's like it's not there. The only way I could even get a reading of the room's air was to monitor the oxygen flow in conduits above the room that still have power."

"Dr. Zelenka!" One of the female scientists who had been working at another console was now standing in front of the map's view screen, pale and shaking. Elizabeth followed Zelenka over to her, and at first could not find what had upset her so much.

Then she noticed that the steady life sign in the munitions room, the one that had represented Lt. Corosen, was no longer there.


	3. Information

"Oh my God." Elizabeth's horrified whisper made John Sheppard stand up straight from where he had been leaning against the wall. Rodney and the others in the corridor outside the munitions room paused in their activities.

"Elizabeth?" Sheppard demanded firmly. Gripping his P-90 a little tighter, he waited tensely for a reply.

"Colonel, I suggest all of you head back to the gate room now." Zelenka's voice was subdued and proffessional. "I have map showing affect areas, which now cover about forty percent of city and climbing."

"What about Corosen? The doctors further in the city?" Sheppard knew he was being stubborn. He knew what had caused Elizabeth's involuntary exclamation earlier but if he gave up on Corosen that meant he gave up on the others and he wasn't prepared to do that. Not yet.

"John," Elizabeth started firmly. "I'm sorry, but Lt. Corosen is no longer showing on the life signs detector. It's too late for him. You and those with you won't be helping by getting trapped as well. We are not giving up, John. But you need to bring everyone with you up to the gate room so that they're safe. Maybe with Rodney up in the control room he can help Zelenka with the database and city systems search and we can fix this problem from the ground up."

Rodney began packing up his few bits of equipment along with Kusanagi, who had appeared not long ago and had been assisting him. Carson was staring at the crystals and bits of circuitry they were leaving behind, looking fairly ill. Sgt. Smigs was standing preternaturally still at the end of corridor, where he had stumbled numbly to after hearing about Corosen.

Generally, Sheppard was glad Elizabeth could collect herself at times like these. Her common sense and ability to think in these situations were a few of the reasons he trusted her so much. Much more than any other commanding officer he ever had. Sometimes, however, his instinct to disobey was so strong he wished she were a little less strong willed. A little less conscientious.

A little less right.

"We'll be there in a little over five minutes," John said shortly. He tried to ignore the look of relief in Rodney's eyes. Some people here in this galaxy had gotten to know him very well and sometimes it could be a pain in the ass. He found it frustrating how people closest to him sometimes wondered if he risked too much, if he did it on purpose. He was prepared as all soldiers were to die doing their duty but was in no way looking forward to going out in a blaze of glory. He wanted to die of old age after living a fulfilling life, not when he was still young. Relatively, he thought ruefully.

Coming back to himself he realized he had been staring at the door to the munitions room. McKay had been calling to him from where he and the others had caught up to Sgt. Smigs, ready to head to the gate room. He shook his head and joined them

"Major Lorne, I want you to pick a room with an outside wall and sit tight. If the room shuts down, you use that explosive to blow yourselves a hole and radio yourselves a jumper evac," Sheppard ordered tightly.

"Yes, sir. Understood. Lorne out."

"You okay?" McKay asked as the two of them took up the tail end of their little procession through the halls. He was visibly uncomfortable with trying to comfort his friend but Sheppard gave him some credit for trying. He was glad Teyla had taken a week's leave to the mainland to handle Athosian business and had taken Ronon with her. This way he didn't have to worry about them being separated from him, suffocating to death while he calmly walked to safety.

Sheppard stared straight ahead. "I'll _be_ okay as soon as we fix whatever's wrong with our city," he replied.

McKay nodded thoughtfully. "The thing I just don't get is why this started happening. I mean, we weren't doing anything invasive with the systems. We weren't activating anything new. None of the systems we had running are indicating any problems. I mean, there should be some indication of where it's coming from if not what's caused it."

"Could it be a virus?" Sheppard asked distractedly. McKay can go on and on about hating when people interrupting him when he's speaking about a problem. But he had a tendency to stick to one issue if someone didn't prod him along every once in a while.

"Yes it could be. And I have Michael Bishop, one of our programmer slash coder extraordinaires researching that possibility. If it's a virus, even another one by the Go'auld that could get around the security protocols of Atlantis, then it should be leaving some kind of a trail. But it would also be affecting whatever system it infected to cause these malfunctions, and there is no sign of that."

"Colonel? We've got a problem," Elizabeth said urgently over the radio. Sheppard stopped in the middle of the hallway, everyone else doing the same before turning to look at him.

"Go ahead," Sheppard responded wearily.

"I'm afraid the way you were taking is blocked now up ahead from your location. You need to back track the way you just came, go through section E-4 of the living quarters and go up the back stairwell three flights. It's the long way, but once you get on the right floor, it's nearly all open. Worse comes to worse we can do a jumper rescue through the glass."

"I would hurry. The rate of malfunctions is still climbing. Nearly fifty percent now," Zelenka explained.

"Right, of course. All right people, you heard them. Let's turn around. Sergeant, lead the way." Sheppard lightly pushed McKay into the wall so that the others could pass first, earning him a glare. Grinning cheekily, Sheppard started following behind the group. McKay caught up quickly.

"You know, this would be a lot easier if we had the transporters," McKay griped as he exaggeratedly rubbed his shoulder where it had connected with the wall at minimum force.

Beckett turned his head and slowed a bit to walk just slightly ahead of his two friends. "Aye, I've been meaning to ask you. Is the problems with the transporters related to this?"

Rodney sighed heavily and dropped his arm. "I don't think so. They've gone down several times this month due to the crystals burning out from surges at certain locations. And when one goes down? They all go down. Zelenka's had Yonick and Rewning do an investigation into the problem but those two couldn't find their way out of a maze on the back of a children's cereal box. Zelenka was supposed to look into it by the end of this week because it's not like we have an unlimited supply of those crystals."

They were silent for a moment as they passed the munitions room, lost in their own thoughts

"Although I suppose that could have been the beginning of the problem," Rodney said thoughtfully, as if there hadn't been a full three minutes of silence since anyone last spoke. "And if that's the case then we might never figure this thing out," he continued to himself oblivious to Carson and Sheppard staring at him.

Sheppard let curiosity get to him when McKay didn't continue. "Why would that be worse than the problems being unrelated? Wouldn't that be one more clue to what's wrong?" He looked at Beckett to see if this made as much sense to him as it did in his head. Beckett just shrugged his left shoulder and looked to McKay.

"Yes, if the two clues together gave us a clear picture of what was wrong," Rodney said. He rubbed his shoulder again while staring at Beckett, obviously wanting to complain for sympathy. For his part, Carson just gave him a 'don't start now' look while staring back. Rodney crossed his arms huffily.

"The fewer systems that are affected, the more of a chance that the problem is in one of those systems," he continued irritably, "and just causing a domino reaction That means we're on the right track as we look into those specific systems. The more systems affected, the more likely the chance it's coming from an outside source. Which leaves us with two possibilities."

He raises a handed with his index finger pointed. "One: It's a virus, which means it was introduced into the system by someone who designed it to _not be detected easily_. Twice as hard to find, trace back to its input point, and fix the damage it's already done. Or two," he raised another finger. "It's some kind of program that had been dormant in the system but is now active. Whether it's faulty, or it's the Ancient's idea of a fun filled day of panic and death, it's going to be hard to find. The database for the control systems of the city is huge. We've looked over maybe five percent of the systems we don't use on a regular basis. To find which one is doing this and how to turn it off would take a large amount of time we don't have."

Sheppard and Beckett looked at each other grimly, finally getting how close they are were to being locked out of their home for a good long time. Behind them a door to one of the public areas they had just passed had closed on its own without warning, making McKay jump and Sheppard bring his gun up. Everyone in the group looked at each other, and began to walk much faster. Soon, they were just a turn away from the stairwell and everyone was breathing a little easier.

"Colonel, the stairwell has locked down! You are shut out of the gate room!" Elizabeth said, sounding alarmed through the radio.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Mckay said, breaking away from the group to hurry down the hall. Sheppard raced after him, finally catching up at the door to the stairwell. McKay removed the access cover of the control unit to reveal unlit crystals, inactive and powerless in their slots.

"Oh, bloody hell," said Carson, coming up behind them with the others following. Sheppard leaned back against the wall near the open access panel, and closed his eyes for a second, breathing deeply. He mentally ran over the city floor plans in his head and came up with no other way to the gate room. Now his only option was to get these people to an open space where a jumper could pick them up later.

"Elizabeth, Radek, where is the closest open area near our location? The place is closing in around us." Sheppard asked as he studied the two hallways at right angles to each other. One lead deeper into the city and away from the possibility of balconies, but closer to the actual East Pier open to the outside. The other, the dead end they just came from, might have balconies off some of the still open doors along the way. The farthest he had come down this hallway was the munitions room. It was all labs down here.

"The map up here doesn't show if there are any balconies, John." Elizabeth explained through the radio. "I can trace you to one of the patios off the East Pier, but I'm afraid you have to go deeper into the city then back out to the left. It'll take some time."

Sheppard grimaced, the news not helping the feeling of being closed in. He was never afraid of small spaces but was now feeling a bit like Han Solo in Star Wars when he was about to get smashed by the walls of the trash compactor with nothing to do about it. He had a crazy flash of Rodney and Zelenka playing R2-D2 and C-3PO and trying to stop it from happening, but dismissed the thought before he decided to dwell on which one was which.

"The lounge across from storage." A female voice said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts. Sheppard was a bit confused about who it was, until Beckett turned around and he could see a surprised looking Kusanagi staring at him.

"I'm sorry?" McKay asked. He had been ranting about something and John had apparently tuned him out, used to listening for a certain tone of voice to know when he was actually saying something important. Kusanagi turned pink, and looked down at her shoes briefly before turning her eyes to McKay.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Dr. McKay. But if we need to go deeper into the city to find safety, there is a small patio right above the water across from storage E-7. It is the only one I know of in this area." She motioned her hand toward the hallway that led deeper into the city. "It is this way, about ten minutes down, just before the turn I believe Dr. Weir wishes us to take." Her accented voice was soft, but certain.

John had always liked her, and not just for the entertainment value of the awkwardness her crush on McKay sometimes caused in the man. She always seemed to pull through.

"Sounds good to me," John said relieved, and motioned everyone to go before him before starting down the hallway himself. "I have a feeling it'll be a good thing she knew that," he said as an aside to McKay. The other man just nodded, having pulled out his data pad when they stopped and was tinkering with it. Sheppard shrugged his shoulders and continued walking, not noticing a few seconds later when McKay stopped until he called for him.

"What's wrong?" Sheppard asked, beginning to walk back towards his friend. McKay just waved his hand and caught up with him.

"Zelenka. I want you to check out that security folder we found. With all those protocols we either couldn't understand or thought were completely ludicrous? Maybe we tripped something without even realizing it." McKay had that calm air that he only wore when he was figuring something out, so Sheppard figured he could be excused if he was getting a little excited. Maybe not so doomed after all.

"Yes, I remember," the other scientist answered. "I'll look into it, see if anything was activated."

McKay nodded and continued walking while poking at his data pad, oblivious to the anxious stares of both Sheppard and Beckett. "Well?" Sheppard asked a little heatedly when it was apparent McKay wasn't going to explain.

"Hmm? Oh, yes. Sorry. Well it's just a thought, but I was just thinking about how the city is removing all the oxygen out of the rooms. It seemed a little funny to me to be just a glitch, but weirder things have happened to us. Hell, weirder things have happened to us this week," McKay snorted. Carson impatiently made, 'yes, yes, move on' gestures with his hands and McKay scowled but continued.

"I got an e-mail from Kavanagh here saying one of his chemistry idiots must have accidentally turned on some kind of gas emitting system. It's in their area, but in a lab no one uses. They investigated the power drain and found that some kind of machine had started mixing pre-stored chemicals together forming what proved to be a pretty powerful knockout gas. Some of the gas had been released through some kind of venting system before they were able to shut it down. They had to remove the power source to get it to stop."

McKay stopped there, looking back and forth between Beckett and Sheppard. Sheppard looked at Beckett who looked back. They both shook their heads and returned their gazes to McKay.

"Don't you see? This happened around the same time that the transporters went down. Just before the first room shut down. I'm thinking this may be some kind of security protocol. Someone not authorized is detected in the city? Shut and lock the doors, turn off the power, release knockout gas to render them unconscious, then send security go get them. Only we removed the gas, so maybe its default-"

"Is to kill if it can't incapacitate," Sheppard finished for him.

McKay nodded. "Right. Maybe just in case someone got to the machine and disabled it."

Beckett's eyes were wide. "What did we do to make the city think we were the enemy?"

Sheppard shrugged, looking at the others in the group. They were still moving along at a pretty good pace, but everyone's attention was on Dr. McKay. This really did sound like a possibility. McKay shrugged as well and started up a conversation with Zelenka about how it could have been triggered. Sheppard had to catch himself not to snap at them, thinking they should concentrate on how to shut it down instead of how it got started before he realized that one could lead to the other. He always got impatient when a dangerous situation was coming to an end. Everyone thought that he sniped and rode McKay during those times to keep him occupied and part of that was true.

The other reason was that it gave him an outlet for his energy that he couldn't use if there was no one to beat up. Adrenaline had come in handy the number of times they've had to outrun an animal, fight their way out of a village or make an end run to the gate. But in these situations it was more of a hindrance than anything, Making him jumpy and impatient.

"There!" Kusanagi shouted, and nearly bowled Sgt. Smigs over in her haste to show them the room with the balcony. They all piled, in following her to the open balcony right above the water. They were virtually in the middle of the city, but towards the outer edge, nearly between the Southern and Eastern Piers. Columns and spires stretched out above them, and out from all directions, sunlight bouncing off the windows nearly blinding. Most of what they could see looked nearly pristine in the bright daylight, shiny, colorful and clean. The only notable exception being a burned out shell of a building on the Southern Pier, twisted metal burnt black If Sheppard's memory served him that was from a dart crashing into it during the first wave of the siege. From the small part of the eastern wall still in tact, it looked to have been painted red in its day.

McKay claimed his spot on the floor gratefully, placing his data pad awkwardly on his drawn in knees, poking away and rattling off to Zelenka. Sheppard itched to turn off his radio; he was getting the conversation in 3-D it seemed with McKay both in person and over his earpiece. He knew it was only a matter of time, however, and kept it on.

Looking around at their little safe haven, he couldn't help but be frustrated that all he could do was run from the problem instead of being the solution. He was glad these people were safe, but what about those two scientists trapped inside? Were they even still alive? At least he was here with this group. If he had been trapped in the gate room watching this all of this on a one dimensional map with little glowing dots disappearing, knowing they were colleagues would have driven him nuts. He couldn't imagine how frustrating it must be for Elizabeth up there.

Now that he thought about it, he realized she _shouldn't _be up there. "Elizabeth?" He knew what she was going to say. But he had to try.

"Yes, John?" She asked as Radek and Rodney stopped their back-and-forth so that they could talk. "I think it's time you went on through the gate with the others. There's nothing else you can do here. Zelenka and McKay will probably have this fixed up in no time and we'll come and get you then."

McKay looked up and smirked at him. Something he must have learned from Sheppard because he never used to do that when they first met. Sheppard had to fight to not stick out his tongue at him.

"John," she said in her 'I Am The Leader Of This Expedition Voice'. "I'm fine up here. There are still people that I am responsible for stuck in this city. Including you. The jumper is on its way from the mainland. I'll go when you go." Sheppard could almost hear her 'and that's final tacked on to the end.

"You heard with your own ears, Elizabeth," he tried. "The gate room is just as dangerous as the rest of the city." McKay raised his finger and opened his mouth but one subtle lift of Sheppard's foot parallel to his ankle had him turning back to his data pad, pouting. "You are the leader of this expedition, and as such, you have a responsibility to all those on the Beta site and those on the mainland to protect yourself. So that you can be there for them whether or not this problem is solved." He nodded his head, pleased with his own logic.

"I'll go when you and those with you are in that jumper, _colonel_. And besides, I'm sure Sergeant Bates will keep me out of trouble," she said evenly, and he winced. He had hoped the man had enough common sense to be _subtle,_ but really he should have known better. He'd just have to depend on him getting her out of there if things got sticky. Sheppard knew he was going to hear about this one later on.

"McKay!" Zelenka interrupted gleefully. "I think we have it! Yes, yes, security program… Something about security breach... this is it! Give me moment to go over program."

"Yes good, go ahead. But don't bother getting intimate with it, just shut it off!" McKay replied, visibly relieved. He pushed his forehead forward onto his knees. Sheppard leaned against the balcony and bumped his leg into McKay's side. "Hey, you figured it out!" He said happily. McKay just grunted, subtly leaning his weight against Sheppard's leg for just a moment before sitting up straight and glowering at him.

"Yes, I did. And that ingrate Kavanagh is going to be working on the septic systems until _next _doomsday for not immediately telling Radek or I about a machine that vented _knockout gas_ somewhere in the city. I could have put that together hours earlier without the death-defying haunted house troop through the city. Before Corosen-" He stopped and winced, but Sheppard finished the thought in his head.

Before Corosen died. And just like that the relief melted away to anger that some program they hadn't even known existed had cost one of his men his life. And those two scientists more than likely by now. Jesus.

Sometimes, he thought he might learn to hate this galaxy.

"McKay. I was able to skim through most program information," Zelenka said urgently, "I cannot reset it from here. It must be set using control chair. Colonel Sheppard must get to control chair and verify security protocols to shut down system. If done incorrectly, according to information, city will attempt to overload ZPM power to act as self destruct. They used control chair to make sure only Ancients could shut down protocol, in case of successful siege on city."

Okay, sometimes he already _did_ hate this galaxy, Sheppard thought wearily. "Can we even get there now? Do we have a way down there?" It was pretty much a straight shot and not as far as it could be, but the control chair was in the middle of the city. If any section of the hallway was down they could detour, but it might take a while. Time they didn't have.

"Nearly seventy-five percent of city has shut down but with exception of one detour, your way is clear."

"I better come with you," McKay said, dragging himself up. "May need my help."

"Me, too." Beckett said. Sheppard started to shake his head. Beckett continued, "The control chair is closer to those other poor souls trapped. I may be able to help them. I'm going."

Sheppard sighed but ignored him when he followed along behind him and McKay as they entered the hallway. "Okay, so what do I have to do once I get to the chair?" McKay was leading the way, with Doctor Beckett keeping pace with Sheppard.

"Should be relatively simple," Zelenka replied. "Just access security protocols through the chair. Only one system is active in that subset. Shut it down. That should reverse everything it's done so far."

Movement up ahead and behind him caught Sheppard's attention. He acted on instinct, grabbing Beckett by the arm and flinging him past the quickly closing door straight into McKay. He saw them falling to the floor.

There was no time for him to squeeze through. The doors sealed shut with a hiss, and he was plunged into darkness.


End file.
